MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

AP – “KANO, Nigeria – Witnesses say three people were injured following a bomb attack in a north Nigeria city that was the scene of a massive assault by a radical Islamist sect in January.

The attack happened Sunday night in a Christian neighborhood of Kano, the largest city in Nigeria’s Muslim north.

A military spokesman said the attack caused no injuries, but local witnesses said three people were wounded.

The bomb apparently was hidden inside of a drinking can. A January attack by members of the Boko Haram sect saw gunmen throw similar explosives.

That January attack killed at least 185 people.

Boko Haram is waging an increasingly bloody fight against Nigeria’s weak central government in its effort to enact strict Shariah law across the multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people and free its imprisoned members.” Source – FOX News.

Revelation 6:9-10, “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”

By Ed West, The Telegraph – “This week’s issue of the Spectator is very important and worth buying – ie I’m in it, arguing that Britain should take action to alleviate the suffering of Iraq’s Christians, if necessary by offering sanctuary (no link, I’m afraid: you’ll just have to stump up the cash).

I met with three Iraqis who have been refused asylum in this country, all of whom had been threatened by Islamists back home. One had lost his shop to jihadi violence, another a brother. The Home Office wants to deport them back to Iraq.

Of two million Iraqi refugees currently outside of the country, some 30 per cent are minorities, mostly Christians, according to the UN: the bulk of them in Syria, Jordan and Turkey, unable to work and living in desperate poverty. Many in Syria now fear that it will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic communities.

The Christian population of Iraq has declined from over one million in 2003 to below 400,000 today. Overall some 1,000 Christians have been murdered since the 2003 invasion, and over 60 churches have been firebombed – the worst single incident being the October 21, 2010 massacre of 60 men, women and children at the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, which alerted the world to their suffering. Two weeks later Islamists detonated 11 bombs in Christian suburbs of Baghdad, killing five Christians and wounding 33, including a four-month-old baby.” Read more.

‘Digital Journal’ Op-Ed: In the line of fire — The plight of Middle Eastern Christians – “As followers of the Christian faith in the United States and throughout the Western world celebrate the culmination of Holy Week with Easter, their counterparts in the Middle East find themselves under fire and on the run for their lives – literally. The Christians of the Middle East are in great peril. Christians in that part of the world are being subjected to an unprecedented religious cleansing at the hands of Islamic extremists who have declared jihad against them.” Read more.

By Nina Shea, Hudson Institute – “In recent years, we’ve begun to brace ourselves for news of bombings, burnings, and other attacks on churches full of Christian worshipers on religious holy days — for example, in Nigeria, Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Ethiopia. This violence comes out of the growing community of Salafi Muslims, adherents of the radical brand of Islam that is Saudi Arabia’s official doctrine and which Saudi Arabia exports throughout the Sunni world. We’ve also come to expect the willful blindness of the Obama administration about the religious implications of these horrific events. Last weekend’s Easter Sunday was no exception.

On Easter morning, a Protestant church in Kaduna, Nigeria, was targeted by a suicide car bombing that killed 39 and wounded dozens, apparently the handiwork of Boko Haram, the Salafi network whose stated aim is to turn Africa’s largest country into a sharia state. Last Christmas, Boko Haram had bombed St. Theresa’s Catholic Church outside the capital Abuja killing 44 worshipers, as well as attacked various Christian churches in the towns of Jos, Kano, Gadaka, and Damaturu.

Four days have now passed and there has been no official comment from the Obama administration about this most recent monstrous example of anti-Christian persecution. However, on April 8, that is, Easter, Secretary Clinton did manage to issue one press release. It announced that ‘today we celebrate the history, impact and culture of Romani people’ (formerly called ‘gypsies’), and inveighed against Europe, demanding that it become ‘more inclusive.’ But for the northern Nigerian Christians savagely attacked on one of their most important religious days, there has not been a word of condolence.

Even worse, the day after the Nigeria church bombing, at a forum on U.S. policy toward Nigeria held at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson — overlooking Boko Haram’s self-proclaimed identity, pattern of behavior, statements and very name, which means ‘Western education is a sin’ — publicly denied that Boko Haram has religious motives. He went out of his way to stress: ‘Religion is not driving extremist violence in . . . northern Nigeria.’

Carson is articulating official U.S. policy.” Read more.

Flashback: Washington Times: Obama Administration Silent While Saudi Grand Mufti Targets Christianity, ‘Ignores These Types Of Provocations At Its Peril’ – “If the pope called for the destruction of all the mosques in Europe, the uproar would be cataclysmic. Pundits would lambaste the church, the White House would rush out a statement of deep concern, and rioters in the Middle East would kill each other in their grief. But when the most influential leader in the Muslim world issues a fatwa to destroy Christian churches, the silence is deafening.” Read more.

Flashback: Obama’s Christian Problem – White House Overlooks Christian Persecution While Pandering to Islam – “The Obama administration has been obsessed with Muslim outreach and recently tried to mend fences with the Jewish community. Given the state of the world, however, the White House ought to be focused on helping the world’s oppressed Christians. The United States has been wary to intervene in matters affecting Christians in the Middle East for fear of validating terrorist narratives that the West is engaged in a new crusade against Islam. The result of this passive policy has been to allow Islamic extremists increasingly to dominate the debate, often with tragic consequences.” Read more.

In a 2007 Frontpage interview, Bill Warner, director of the Center for the Study of Political Islam, stated that “Jihad destroyed a Christian Middle East and a Christian North Africa… The history of political Islam is the destruction of Christianity in the Middle East, Egypt, Turkey and North Africa. Half of Christianity was lost.” Today, as Islamic radicalization rears its ugly head once more, it now appears that the Beast that was is intent on finishing the job once and for all. Yet, as the CBN segment below is quick to point out, “this widespread persecution is largely ignored by the mainstream media” …

Flashback: The Christian Era in the Middle East is Over, ‘Will Be Completely Green, the Colour of Islam’ – “In Revelation 6:8 John describes the ‘fourth horseman of the Apocalypse’ as being ‘chlōros’, literally translated as ‘green’. Green is the official color of Islam and is believed to have been Mohammed’s favorite. The ‘fourth horseman’ is described as having power over the fourth part of the earth. I don’t believe that it is a mere coincidence that Islam today has dominion over a fourth part of the earth.” Read more.

John 16:2b, “… the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God.”

BY EMEKA MAMAH & SAM EYOBOKA – “KANO – Islamist sect, Boko Haram, has threatened to bring down the Federal Government led by President Goodluck Jonathan within three months. Purported leader of the sect said this in his second video posted on the Internet yesterday.

The 14 minutes, two seconds video of Abubakar Shekau seen on YouTube was in response to Jonathan’s comments while in South Korea, about two weeks ago, that the Boko Haram phenomenon would be under control by the middle of this year.

The sect’s threat came even as police yesterday confirmed that the death toll from an attack by unknown gunmen suspected to be members of the Islamist group on a town along Nigeria’s border with Cameroon has risen to no fewer than 10. Boko Haram’s attacks have left over 1,000 people dead since mid-2009. Apart from the latest attack in Borno, about 46 people died following bomb attack on residents of Kaduna on Easter day.

Christians from the 17 Southern states of the country had at an extraordinary meeting in Lagos on Wednesday appealed to the Northern elite, including religious leaders and politicians to rise to the challenges of insecurity which is capable of breaking up the country…

‘You, Jonathan, cannot stop us; instead we will devour you in the three months like you are boasting,’ Shekau said in the video entitled ‘Message to Goodluck Jonathan’. He was flanked by four masked men holding rifles as he spoke.

‘We are proud soldiers of Allah; we will never give up as we fight the infidels. We will emerge as winners … we will finish you and end your government,’ Shekau said in Arabic and the Hausa languages…

In the preamble of the message, Shekau vowed that it must destroy Christians and Christianity in Nigeria particularly those killing Muslims in Nigeria just as it said it will also kill all Muslims aiding the arrest and harassment of its members.

Shekau further said: ‘If death is your worldly gain, for us, it is eternal victory to die working for Allah. Our joy is to die in Jihad for Allah against infidels like you…

We are not doing physical human service, but Allah’s work … We are not afraid because we are not doing man’s work but Allah’s work …'” Read more.

By Gary Lane and Lucille Talusan, CBN News – “MINDANAO, Philippines – The Philippines is a mostly Christian nation, but in the south, Muslim fundamentalists are trying to build an Islamic state.

Christians there face persecution and even death.

The island of Mindanao on the southernmost part of the Philippines is predominantly Muslim. The area’s most remote parts are a haven to terrorist groups linked to al Qaeda that carry out attacks and kidnappings in the region.

Because of this, persecution against Christians is strong. This year, at least four house churches closed down after their pastors and lay leaders were killed by Muslim extremists.

Pastor Mario Acidre was one them. His wife, Mayang, was distraught over her husband’s murder, which took place right in their home.

‘My husband staggered into our bedroom and I was shocked because he was full of blood,’ she recalled. ‘I brought him to the hospital right away. He was operated on for eight bullet wounds, but did not survive.’

Pastor Acidre was a former Muslim who converted to Christianity. He boldly shared the gospel to his Muslim relatives and neighbors.

Despite threats to his life, he was not afraid to hold Bible studies in his home, which he eventually converted into a house church.” Read more.

Flashback: Philippines: Christian Father of 13 Beheaded by Suspected Muslim Extremists in Mindanao – “MacArthur Arbado, an elder at the Bible Baptist Church in Carmen, Cotabato, was murdered on November 10 as he returned to his farm. The attackers shot him in the leg, back and abdomen before decapitating him with his own machete. MacArthur leaves behind his wife, Lolita, and 13 children.” Read more.

By Lisa Daftari, FOX News – “Twelve Christians stood trial Easter Sunday in Iran, where they were called ‘apostates’ in a courtroom and tried on multiple charges, according to sources close to Iran’s Christian community.

The Christians had been acquitted on the same charges, including ‘crimes against the order,’ a year ago in Bandar Anzali, a city on the Caspian Sea. The group was first arrested when authorities found them drinking wine while taking communion, according to sources.

‘It ultimately illustrates that being a Christian is illegal in Iran. No matter how clear or how open a pastor and a church may be, Christians are being brought to trial just for being Christian,’ said Jason DeMars, director of the Present Truth Ministries advocacy group who is in daily contact with the Evangelical Christian community in Iran.

No verdict has yet been issued in the case.

The attorney for the group, prominent human rights advocate Mohammad Ali Dadkhah — who also represents Youcef Nadarkhani, the Iranian Christian pastor charged with apostasy and sentenced to death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity — was not able to attend Sunday’s court appearance, according to sources who said his flight from Tehran was fogged in. The 12 represented themselves to the judge.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran’s Final Verdict: Allah’s Law Has Spoken, Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani Should Be Killed for Rejecting Islam – “A trial court in Iran has issued its final verdict, ordering a Christian pastor to be put to death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity, according to sources close to the pastor and his legal team. Supporters fear Youcef Nadarkhani, a 34-year-old father of two who was arrested over two years ago on charges of apostasy, may now be executed at any time without prior warning, as death sentences in Iran may be carried out immediately or dragged out for years.” Read more.

By Santosh Digal, BosNewsLife Asia – “CALCUTTA, INDIA (BosNewsLife)– Christians in India’s eastern West Bengal state were recovering of their injuries Thursday, April 12, after Muslim militants broke up a prayer meeting and beat up believers, including women, local police and Christians said.

The March 30 attack in the village of Nutangram in Murshidabad district involved ‘about 100 Muslim radicals’ led by Muslim leader Mohammed Aanu Shaike, local Christians explained.

There was no immediate reaction from the leader and no group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Muslim mob allegedly ‘barged into the prayer meeting’ at the home of a Christian and verbally abused them and mercilessly beat up the Christians including women.’

Muslim women were also provoked to beat up Christian women, witnesses said. The Muslims reportedly chased the Christians, including children, with a knives, threatening to murder them all.” Read more.